food tips

Cold soups, from gazpacho to puréed melon, are a fantastic summer appetizer — when you make them, be sure to check their seasoning, as salt comes through less in cold food than in room temperature food. If you're serving the soups outside on a hot summer day, make them slightly thicker than you intend on serving them, then garnish them with big chunks of ice both to thin them out and keep them cold.

Speed roast

Love the sweet flavor of roasted garlic, but don't want to wait the 30, 45 or 60 minutes it takes to roast it in the oven? Try this speedy skillet roasting method picked up from that great authority on Mexican cooking, Rick Bayless:

Place a dry skillet over medium heat. Add unpeeled garlic cloves. Cook 10 to 15 minutes, or until soft — time will vary depending on size of the cloves — shaking pan occasionally to avoid scorching. Allow cloves to cool, and then slip them out of their skins. Presto! Roasted garlic ready for duty. It's a great companion to root vegetables, can be spread on toasted bread for bruschetta or added to salad dressings. Its uses are limited only by your imagination.

Beans: the musical fruit

When soaking or rinsing dried beans or lentils, make sure to skim off any that have floated to the top. Floating is a dead giveaway that they're old and therefore hollow, and not nearly as moist as you would want. Rinse away the soaking water when you're ready to cook; doing that helps curb one of the more unfortunate side effects of bean-consumption.

Throwback juicers

Old-fashioned juicers — the kind that look like a combination between a clamp and a press — really get the most juice out of citrus fruit. They're a little counterintuitive to use; after halving your fruit, balance the rounded bottom on the point of the juicer, and press down until the fruit gets turned inside out. Save the hollowed out shells to serve ceviche or sorbet in. To get even more juice, roll the fruit on the counter briefly before halving, or pop in the microwave for a couple of seconds.